Design of an efficient terahertz source using triply resonant nonlinear photonic crystal cavities

• Main Authors: Burgess, Ian B. (Author), Zhang, Yinan (Author), McCutcheon, Murray W. (Author), Rodriguez, Alejandro W. (Contributor), Bravo-Abad, Jorge (Contributor), Johnson, Steven G. (Contributor), Loncar, Marko (Author)
• Other Authors: Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Mathematics (Contributor), Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Physics (Contributor)
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Optical Society of America, 2013-08-27T17:12:44Z.
• Subjects: Article
• Online Access: Get fulltext

 We propose a scheme for efficient cavity-enhanced nonlinear THz generation via difference-frequency generation (DFG) processes using a triply resonant system based on photonic crystal cavities. We show that high nonlinear overlap can be achieved by coupling a THz cavity to a doubly-resonant, dual-polarization near-infrared (e.g. telecom band) photonic-crystal nanobeam cavity, allowing the mixing of three mutually orthogonal fundamental cavity modes through a χ[super script (2)] nonlinearity. We demonstrate through coupled-mode theory that complete depletion of the pump frequency - i.e., quantum-limited conversion - is possible. We show that the output power at the point of optimal total conversion efficiency is adjustable by varying the mode quality (Q) factors.